Sunday, January 10, 2010

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Peter Zallinger

Here's an old Random House picture book on dinosaurs from the year I was born. That's 1977. It is by Peter Zallinger, son of Rudolf Zallinger (as confirmed by this 2007 New Hampshire Register article). Peter has done illustrations for many paleontology books over the years.

Dinosaurs

Duckbill Trio

If I was a Tyrannosaur, I'd be aiming squarely for that noodly little neck!

Ornitholestes

You probably recognize this illustration - it's inspired by a 1914 Charles L. Knight drawing of Ornitholestes. I've run across many Ornitholestes derived from the Knight original. In fact, it seems that this pose is the little Jurassic theropod's main claim to fame.

7 comments:

  1. I have been searching for the book for years. Had a sizeable amount of glee finding it here.

    Also, I love this blog. Great posts, great title!

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  2. I may just share more pics from it some time, when I get the ol' scannin' jones. Thanks for the kind words!

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  3. I saw this in a pile of dinosaur books at the Grant Museum! One of the thing that drew my attention was the finely hatched style.

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  4. When things settle a bit, I'll try to get more scanned in. Peter was fond of the orange - blue color scheme.

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  5. I look forward to it when you have the chance.

    Also: 'things' with an 's' in my earlier comment. I hate it when that happens. *Is only mildly obsessive compulsive...*

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  6. That "first known reptile with feathers" line about our good friend the archaeopteryx isn't so true any more, is it? The other night we were reading in William Stout's "Prehistoric Life Murals" that in 2005 or so, a Tyrannosaur was found in China that showed distinct feathers on its tail. Stout mentioned he was proud to have painted the first plume-tailed T.Rex in one of his murals for the San Diego Museum of Natural History. Dino books from the last few years now sport tons of feathers - a lot different from what we had in the 1970s! And ever since McLoughlin's 'Archosauria,' we've done away with the submerged sauropod idea, too. We grew up on underwater brachiosaurs, but it seems that was all wrong!

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  7. Can you upload the sea creature pictures from the book?

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